Be proud of £4m Guildhall, urges Mayor

4:57pm Thursday 29th May 2008

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THE Mayor has said that the Guildhall building is worth a cool £4million to Chard Town Council and people should be proud of its facilities.

The Guildhall, the focal point of Chard, has come in for criticism from local groups and org-anisations in recent months over its usage, but the Mayor, Cllr Martin Wale, has said that visiting civic dignitaries have been left in awe of the facilities available.Cllr Wale, speaking at the annual town meeting, said: "The Guildhall continues to be the subject of controversy, albeit lately more concerning its usage than its existence."I was not a member of the town council when the brave and visionary decision was made to go ahead with the Guildhall refurbishment at the latter end of the last century."I've always taken an objective view, and when you remember the project cost something like £2.2million, of which £1.8million was a gift from the Heritage Lottery Fund, we've now got a building that has been conservatively assessed as being worth £4million."Had this action not been taken, large annual costs would have been incurred by the council in order to maintain the listed building."I think the deal' for the town looks a good one."The Mayor added: "If we are to be proud of our town we should have a civic facility that is the centre of the town."In this last year I have had the pleasure of showing mayors from all over Somerset, as well as some from Devon and Dorset as well, around the Guildhall."I can assure people that they were all not only impressed but also jealous of this wonderful facility."Some organisations have been angered that charges for hiring the Guildhall have been increased and claim that they might have to stop using the building for shows and functions.But the Mayor said: "The costs of running a facility such as the Guildhall are large and increased usage helps to offset the gap between income and expenditure."